2024年1月19日星期五

Backman's Writing Tips (Ongoing)

Writing tips #1 Make things smaller

(This is a new thing I'm trying, since I'm hopeless at answering emails and I know that annoys people, so: Once in a while I'll try to take some writing tips I get questions about from aspiring writers and write them down here. Disclaimer: It might be very bad tips! In that case, do the opposite. Whatever works for you. Alright? Alright. Let's try this.) "MAKE THINGS SMALLER". What the hell does that mean? Well, I find it's easy to think that a story has to be big, that it has to span over generations and take place in different continents and be thousands of pages long with tons of characters. Don't get me wrong, there are many great authors who make that work (because they're great authors), but for me personally it always helped when I was panicking to make things...smaller. Instead of writing a novel, I often try writing a novella. Because when my self esteem is low and I'm looking for a spark I need that feeling of completing something. It can be just a couple of pages, often I don't even publish it anywhere, it's just a writing exercise: Can I do this? Can I tell this story in 10 pages? And when I'm done, I'm happier, and I find it easier to start something new. Sometimes one small story grows into a novel, sometimes not. Often I use something that I never showed anyone as spare parts when building something else years later: This character might work here, this joke might fit over there. I never see an idea I tried and couldn't quite make work as failed or lost, I see it at as a scrap yard. I go back and dig through the mess and often find something useful. The idea of "making things smaller" also applies to the way I build worlds: I like small universes. "A man called Ove" takes places mostly on one street, "My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry" mostly in one building and "Anxious People" in one single appartement. "Beartown" is by far the largest setting I've used, but in that case I made time smaller: "The Winners" really takes place over the course of just 2 weeks. So if you're having trouble getting started as a writer, or feel overwhelmed and stressed out by the size of your idea, I think sometimes this helps. At least it did for me.


Writing tips #2  Don't Worry about worrying

V(I'm really not qualified to give writing tips but this is a new thing I'm trying out anyway, since some of you asked. Just remember I don't know what the hell I'm doing.) DON'T WORRY ABOUT WORRYING. This might get confusing, but bare with me: I mean...you're gonna WORRY, of course you are, and that's fine. I've never met a good writer who doesn't worry all the time. Non-worriers who go through life like there's absolutely no reason to be overwhelmed by anxiety 99% of your day...these people don't write novels. Why would they? They're balanced, functioning, normal human beings, they don't have to spend 8 hours a day alone in a room with people they made up in their head just because they've been terrified of reality all their lives. But you and me? Well, we probably have a couple of issues. So: Worry all the time, and put all of the worrying into your writing, because that's what's gonna connect it to someone. That's what makes it real. That's the stuff that a musician feels on stage, making eye contact with someone in the front row crying: Now you feel what I'm feeling, now I'm not alone in this. Worrying is important. Worrying is key. I'm just telling you to try not to WORRY about worrying. Your self esteem is gonna be terrible at times, you're gonna get lost, we all do. I've never met a single writer whose books I've loved who's told me: "Oh this? This was easy!" Never. It doesn't matter how many books you write or how many bestseller lists you're on, you'll always feel like a fraud. Trust me. So...accept the worrying. Make it a part of your process. You're out here looking for something and maybe it will take some time. But there's nothing wrong with you. You're not failing. Just write and keep writing. You'll be fine.

Writing tips #3 Bad Friction makes good fiction

(This is a fairly new thing I'm trying out, giving writing advice I'm clearly not qualified to give, so if the advice doesn't work I strongly recommend trying the opposite.) BAD FRICTION MAKES GOOD FICTION. See what I did there? It rhymes. I feel smart now. But it's also kind if true. At the very least it's not NOT true. The thing is that I've been told many times that every story needs "conflict", and even though I'm not necessarily sure that's true for all writers, I would agree it absolutely helps. It gives the story reason and forward motion. I do, however, not think that the conflict always has to be BIG. Especially not when it comes to comedy and humor. I think just a little friction is often much funnier. The conflict in your story can go on within people or between them, but they don't have to be enemies to create something funny, they just have to rub eachother the wrong way. Someone asked me recently about how to create a "cast of characters" like I did in Anxious People, and it requires a complicated answer (those are all I have) because I really don't create a cast. The characters in my stories are just what's left, after the chaos in my head dies down. I always have way more characters to begin with than I do by the end, and as I move along I cut everyone out who doesn't evolve into real people to me. As soon as I feel a character only exists as a tool to move the story forward, that character has to go. I can only keep the ones I believe in and truly feel for. (This is, by the way, why so many of my stories keeps sidetracking, and for what it's worth it's the opposite advice of what I've heard is given in many writing classes I was not accepted into, so I could VERY well be wrong here.) But when that's done, and you have the characters you have, I think about comedy like planning a very, very bad dinner party: Try to seat people next to each other that you know won't get along at all. A story, especially a funny story, doesn't have to involve crazy epic spectacular things all the time. It can be quite enough to just put a couple of non-spectacular humans with absolutely nothing in common in a very normal situation where they have to co-exist.


Writing tips #4 Steal a Structure

(I'm not qualified to do this, so if the advice doesn't work: Do the opposite.) STEAL A STRUCTURE. This may not apply to anyone who feels they're super smart and great at writing. But if you're anything like me, struggling with your confidence a bit, some structure for your story might really help. So, for simplicity, let's say structure is basically "what will happen and when?". Not "why" or " to whom" (I don't think you need me for that, I think that's in your head already) but just...a sort of timeline. Maybe I should use fancier words like "composition" or "arch", but I'm not great at English so let's just stick to: "What happens? When?" If you're an awesomely talented writer I think you can just sit down and make up a structure of your own. But I'm not, so I started out stealing a structure I knew and loved, and then I modified it slightly: I picked fairytales. That's how I told my debut novel "A man called Ove". Sure, it takes place in one little street and there are no space ships or wizards or magical kingdoms, but the basic structure is the same as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Peter Pan. Because fairytales and adventures was always my first love, so that's what I keep coming back to. This is what Joseph Campbell called "the hero's journey" in his book "The hero with a thousand faces" from 1949. The first step in this journey is "the call to adventure": This is Harry Potter getting a letter from Hogwarts, Luke Skywalker getting a message from Princess Leia, Wendy meeting Peter Pan...or, in Ove's case: The sound of an absolute moron backing a Japanese car into his mailbox. A man called Ove is a very small adventure, but it's still an adventure. The structure is the same. He meets a companion, the cat. He encounters enemies, the men in white shirts. He is tested, he overcomes fear, he finds purpose. It's a love story. That's how I figured out where I was going. So: If you're writing and get stuck, it might help to go get your favorite book or film or theatre play, and write down the structure of it. What happens? When? Steal that structure. Modify and adjust. Until all of a sudden you start feeling...oh! This is a story now! And then you'll be on your way.


Writing tips #5 Oranges

(This is something I'll do once in a while, if you scroll back to December you'll find my 4 first tips. It's VERY important to say here that I have absolutely NO idea how to write a book, most writers don't. So if the advice doesn't work for you it might work perfectly well to try the opposite. But for what it's worth: This is how I do it.) ORANGES. One of the absolutely most common questions (I would assume) all writers get is this: "Was this character based on a real person?" And I always answer yes, but maybe not in the way that you'd think. Because it's very, very rarely one person, it's many. So the analogy is maybe...orange juice. It takes a lot of oranges to make just one glass, and it might take 20 real people to make one good character. You steal a way of speaking here, a funny expression there, an anecdote about someone's dad at a dinner party one night and a little mannerism from a stranger in the grocery store the next morning. Some of these people I might have met 30 years ago, some of them yesterday, but the closest I can come to explain the process is this: I think storytelling is the art of looking without knowing what you're looking for. It's like opening a bunch of dusty boxes in an attic, accepting that most of what you find is gonna be junk, but then all of a sudden: "Wait...what's this?" You hold something up, and something happens. And you might not know what to use it for right away, but you store that emotion in your brain, and 5 years later all of a sudden you're creating a character and you realize: "Oh, THIS is where I'll use it." Maybe it's the smallest, stupidest thing. But building a character into a human being is just about adding and adding a million little pieces, the reader doesn't need to know them all but the writer has to. And all of a sudden you'll add something that clicks, like a key in a lock, maybe it's the way your mom laughs or the way an old neighbor yelled at people who parked their bicycles in the wrong place. And that's when you give a character something real. Something that makes them feel real to YOU. And then you know them, and you'll feel the need to defend them. And that, for me, is where every story begins.


Writing tips #6 Don't create a perfect space

(This is something I'll do once in a while. These are things that have worked for me, but it might not work for you. In that case: Don't worry. Follow your own path, dance to your own music.) DON'T CREATE A PERFECT SPACE. Every writer I know dreams of the perfect writing room, the perfect office and desk and light and...everything. I do too. But the thing is that if you do create that perfect space, chances are you're only gonna be able to really write when you're...there. And honestly: How often is that gonna be? I started writing my first novel when my wife had just had our first child. I had a full time job, we lived in a tiny apartment. If I had waited for the perfect time or space to write in, I'd still be waiting. So I figured the opposite: If I can teach myself to write everywhere, I can write all the time. So I wrote in train stations and in crowded cafés. I really practiced concentrating through noise. (Nowadays, the best investment I can think of for any writer is a really good pair of headphones, way cheaper than renting an office.) And I told myself that a story can be written on anything: Envelopes, as an email to yourself, or using your kid's crayons to write on the bathroom wall while taking a shower. I often write on my hands and if I'm in the car I call a friend and ask: "Hey! Just write this down: Blue thing in chapter 2 must be same as Whats-his-face finds in the bag in chapter 36!!! Remember: Banana goat!!!" I think I've written down half of all my best ideas in my phone in the middle of a dinner or a concert. You don't need a nice pen (although nice pens are very nice) or an expensive notebook to feel like a writer, trust me. The ideas make you feel like a writer. The writing makes you one. I still work the same chaotic way I did when I was starting out, 11 years ago. I'm still as insecure. And I still get just as excited when I'm on a vacation, at a beach with my family, and all of a sudden have an idea and start screaming to my wife: "What can I write on??? I have to write this down!!!" And my wife still rolls her eyes, sighs deeply, and answer: "If only there was some SAND around here, Fredrik, maybe you could write in that." So I do.


Writing tips #7 You already know

It's a common thing to ask writers about their "inspiration", and there are very few things I find harder to explain. I think everyone who makes anything at all asks themselves constantly: "Where the hell did all this come from?" and "will it ever happen again?" Every time, and I mean EVERY time, I've ever finished a book or a short story, I'm completely convinced that I won't be able to do it again. Because I can't believe it even happened once. It's not just the inspiration, or the idea, it's the work and the exhaustion...and EVERY time I'll feel that I won't ever have it in me to do it one more time. And every time, still, something arises. It's not like lightning for me, it's not a sudden realization, it's little by little. Something during a walk, something else during a dinner or while waiting in line at a store. Most often? It's not a new thing, it's an old one. A memory. A forgotten emotion. I have no idea what an idea...is. But I think, if you are looking for one to write, maybe you shouldn't look forward. Go back instead, as far as you can, to your most impactful reading experiences from childhood. Grab a book you loved as a teenager or watch a movie you've seen a hundred times, play a game you once played with your best friends, listen to a song your dad used to listen to in the car. Because these are the things noone else can copy, what only you know. Everyone wants to be original, but nothing comes out of thin air, and the thing that'll make you original as a writer are the sum of your parts. The combination of all the things that you have been blown away by. If you're stuck, return to the stories that taught you to like stories to begin with. Whenever you're looking for a new idea, go look for your first love. All your tools are right there, and I don't think you need advice about inspiration then. I think you already have everything you need. And one day, when someone asks you where you found that one great idea, you'll probably say: Everywhere. And when you're done, you'll be just as lost again. And you'll go looking again, for the old and the new. And you'll never be able to explain it.


Writing tips #8 Don't start

One of the hardest things to do in writing is to begin writing. So sometimes I find it really helpful to not do that. If you'd like to try I'd recommend, first of all, consider not telling anyone you've begun writing a book. Because if you begin telling people they're gonna ask real soon when you're going to finish. That's a lot of pressure for no reason, so consider keeping your work secret, especially from yourself. You can't procrastinate work if it's not work, so simply try to not let you think that you have actually started yet. Because...you're just playing around with an idea, right? Just having fun, like talking about opening a bar after you've had three beers with your best friends? Right. And since the beginning of a book is always very hard to write, often much harder than the ending, try not to begin there. Take whatever other scene you have in your head, a dialogue or just a couple of meaningful sentences that you think "this will be great for the middle of the story, I just have to figure out the beginning first", and just...begin with that. Don't sit down at your desk thinking "now I'm gonna write for 8 hours", just sit down and say "I'll just very quickly write down this one thing and then I'll go for ice cream...". I often convince myself I'm in a rush out the door, because that way I'll procrastinate whatever it is I should be doing by writing instead. And then, since I'm already sitting down, I might accidentally write another quick thing, and another one. And if that happens to you, I would ask you to not worry about what's chronological, or even logical. Just keep adding pieces without worrying about how they'll fit together. Start from the middle and work your way out. Write whatever part you feel like on that particular day. Sooner or later, by accident, you will have written so much of the story that you can't help yourself but to think: "I think I know how to begin now!" And this way, once you actually begin to begin, you won't start with an empty page. You'll have collected tons of material. And so, when you actually tell people that you've begun writing, and they ask how far you've come, you'll be able to answer: "More than halfway."


Writing tips #9 Don't ask for feedback

As always, this might be bad advice. I'm honestly not even sure what "feedback" actually means, so I'm in trouble already. But here's the thing: I've met a lot of people who seems to think "feedback" just means "criticism", and I'm...critical to that. I think criticism is what comes from critics, after the work is done. That's when you'll be told to have "thick skin", but I don't know how that works. I think creativity requires sensitivity, and very few people can turn that on and off. Most of us are hurt by criticism. Thats why I feel "feedback" is different, because it comes during the work, not after. To be asked to give it is an invitation, a trust. And there's good bad feedback, and bad good feedback, but I really believe the most valuable is good good feedback. That doesn't mean you should lie, it just means that criticism doesn't have the responsibility to be helpful, but I think feedback does. And that's REALLY hard. Pointing out mistakes is easy, but to be able to explain what you liked and why, that requires commitment and vulnerability. Being critical is zero risk, but letting others know what you love is deeply personal. So when asked for an opinion, humans tend to be...critical first. And as a writer, when you ask someone for "feedback", you're probably in a fragile place. This might be the first time you even show the text to anyone at all. So sometimes it can really be helpful to just...not ask for feedback. At least not all of it, all at once. Maybe try asking: "This first time, can you just tell me what you...liked?" Because if you get an honest compliment, and go back to your text, I think you'll often automatically add more of the good stuff. But also: You'll start figuring out what doesn't work, on your own. And then? You re-write. You take a breath. And THEN you go back and say: "Alright. I'm ready for what you didn't like now." And when you get that, honestly, you still might get hurt. But maybe it doesn't knock the wind out of you completely, because you're more secure in your story now. It might even...encourage you a little. And then? You take a deep breath, and you re-write again. And right there? That's where I think a book happens.


Writing tips #10 Be a disappointment

Well, this is not really a writing tip, but a few years ago I had a breakdown: Memory loss, nosebleeds, panic attacks, nervous twitching. I still struggle with it. It’s not anyone’s fault, I’m not writing this for you to feel sorry for me, I just repeat it now and then so young writers might know that it's not uncommon. I went to therapy thinking my health problems came from stress, but they come from pressure. Expectations. And the tricky thing with those? They grow. So no matter how successful you are they will still find a way to make you feel you’re letting everyone who believed in you down. Every time I've been on a bestseller list or at a movie premiere I've thought: “Shit. Now THIS is going to be everyone’s expectation EVERY time.” Whenever someone say they loved my last book I’m convinced they’ll hate my next one. Whatever I do I always feel someone wanted more. My inbox is full of unanswered requests for interviews, podcasts, tours, meetings, selling things, recording birthday messages. It’s hard to explain that I don’t have the time, because some days I need 6 hours of silence in the forest with my dog just to find energy to do one Zoom call. An author talk? Weeks of mental preparation. It's a huge misconception that everyone who dreams of being read also dreams of being seen, writing is just the only thing that makes some of us feel like ourselves. I'm uncomfortable being recognized, I feel threatened when people seek out my office or my home, anonymity is a treasure to me. I wish I was more easy going, I wish I was happier. Less intense, more relaxed. And if you're like me you'll be told “just say no to everything then!”, but if you’re like me you’ll find that exhausting, because letting others down wears you down. I think I’ve disappointed everyone I’ve ever worked with. It’s in the nature of any business to want everything to be as big as possible, that’s why no one will stop you if you don’t stop yourself. So this is not a writing tip, this is for what comes after: Be a disappointment. Write what you want to write. Make your world smaller. Sometimes you need to walk away from a few things. Sometimes you just really need to not answer every email.


Writing tips #11 End things

 (This might be bad advice, and if so: Just do the exact opposite.) When I was writing my first novel I found a lot of advice on how to structure a book, but very little about how to structure a chapter. So I ended up structuring each one like it was a short story. This was, mainly, because the thought of finishing a whole book sent me into full panic. So as a defence mechanism I only let myself focus on the first and last sentence of one chapter, and then everything in between that. Like not looking down while climbing. And since my biggest heroes were children's book writers, I used their structure: I wanted one chapter to be read in one sitting, and for the ending to be a satisfying place to close the book and go to sleep. This lead me to, for my first novel, trying to write each chapter around the same length. (Around 10-15 000 characters in Microsoft Word, which I think is around 2-3000 words, so one of my chapters usually comes out to around 3 or 4 "computer pages", which comes out to roughly 8 to 12 pages in the actual book.) Why? Because I imagine a chapter of mine works best if you read it in one go, as you’re lying in bed or are waiting for a bus (or sitting at the toilet, no judging), and this is a reasonable concentration span to ask for. So I try to tell you a full story within that, because I'm trying to make you feel what I'm feeling, not only the last time you put the book down but every time you do, so that you'll want to pick it back up again the next day. I try to move the story forward at the end of each chapter not necessarily by cliffhangers but by…closure. I don’t write thrillers, I know you won’t come back tomorrow because of all the suspense, I just want you to come back because you felt something yesterday. Because you care about the people in the story. So this is my way: I focus on one chapter, I think of it like it's own story, I start it and I end it. And the next day I repeat. It gives me these little senses of accomplishment along the way, and I really think that's how I trick myself not to panic. Every full novel I've ever managed to finish is just a lot of those 3-or-4-pages-days piled on top of each other. Endings after endings.


Writing tips #12  Don’t Write for Them

Writers often ask other writers "how do you handle critics?". Some say you should read everything, some say read nothing, some say the worst critique is no critique at all. But the best advice I ever got was..."don't". Listen if you want, learn what you can, but don't try to "handle" critics. You'll end up writing for them. And...don't. Critics will hurt you, that's alright. Just don't try to impress them, don't try to prove anything, don't try to win them over. You won't. It's not because of you, it's because of them. So don't. There are always going to be people who talk down to you, who are condescending and mean, spiteful and small. No matter how hard you try they'll still roll their eyes. You'll never be cool, special or beautiful enough for them. That's alright. You're not for everyone, you never will be. So don't stay in a place thats bad for you, even if it's a good place. The people who don't get your writing might not be wrong about everything, but they're wrong about you. Don't stay for them, don't change for them. You'll meet people you look up to that look down on you. It'll hurt, it's fine, it'll be okay. Write on, write more, it's the only way. Because those who say hurtful things about your writing don't want you to write better, they want you to write nothing. You'll never be good enough for them, so don't. Just don't. You'll always be underrated. Someone will always roll their eyes. It's alright, just don't become them, because you'll end up thinking like them, bringing others down, being cynical and cruel, looking for cracks instead of looking for light. You'll end up writing like them. You'll end up loving nothing. So leave them, go outside and be excited. Be curious. Be stupid. Make mistakes. Don't worry about them telling you you're going the wrong way, at least you're out there looking, you might not find exactly what you're searching for but they'll never find anything. You're moving, they're not. You'll turn around one day to see they're all gone. It's alright. They were never your audience, they were not your readers, this did not belong to them. So don't shrink yourself for them.



Writing tips #13  Give Up

To some people, I'm sure, writing is easy. I'm just not one of those people. For me, writing is more often a series of self esteem shattering obstacles, and at those moments I try to think of the cheerful advice I've gotten from other writers: You know, have you tried taking a walk to clear your head? Have you tried reading that book by that guy? Meditated? Downloaded an app? These are all solid pieces of advice, I'm sure, but for me some of the best advice actually came from someone asking: Have you tried to...you know...not? Have you tried just...giving up? I've published 10 books or something now, but I've given up on many more. Very few of my ideas work, but I'm a slow learner, so I keep digging. Sometimes I dig so deep I forget what the hell I was looking for in the first place. And at that point, sometimes surrender is the bravest option. It's hard to turn back. Embarrassing, even. But sometimes a story is stuck, a character doesn't find his place, things don't turn out the way you thought. It's fine. Don't worry. Fight it if you can, download that app or go for that walk if it helps, but if not: Try giving up. Just to see what happens. Sometimes I'll quit something 300 pages in and go write something else, just to see if I'm drawn back. If it haunts me. Sometimes I'll let go of a story and use spare parts of it in another story, that's how I wrote "Anxious People", all of the success of that book came from a parade of failures before. Once in a while I force myself to take out a character, just to see how I would tell the story without her. Sometimes I'll delete a whole chapter I'm struggling with because rewriting might work better than editing. It's a common mistake to view time spent as "lost", but it's not. So, maybe, don't hang on to an idea just because you're scared of that being your only good one. Go look for another idea, and it might lead you back to the first one, with new answers. Or you might use parts of that old one, and create something better. Don't worry about being "a writer", you're already there, you're a writer when you write. You'll find your way. Don't give in. But, you know, once in a while: Try giving up.

People often ask me if I have a "writing routine", and I really, really don't. I do however have a STRICT coffee routine without which I just couldn't survive. It consists of me getting up every morning, making a perfect cup of coffee just the way I like it, in a really crazy expensive coffee machine that my wife bought for me for Father's day because she knows how important coffee is to me. I don’t want just any coffee, I want only the best, because I'm like that L'oreal commercial: I'm worth it. So I use fresh coffee beans that I buy from a serious man in a special store and I don't know the current cocaine prices but I'm fairly sure I can say "these coffee beans cost more than cocaine!" without being way out of line. They're so special I feel pretty when I buy them. Like what I imagine happy people feel like. Like the musical episode of a sitcom. The coffee? It takes a really long time to make every morning because the machine has to heat the water to just the right temperature. Sometimes I use a special water heater BEFORE even putting it into the coffee machine because it filters the water so that something something doesn't do something something with the calcium or whatever. It's an extensive process. I have googled, I have Youtubed, I have not Tiktocked but I will not RULE IT OUT IN THE FUTURE. I wake up very frikkin early in the morning for this coffee, sometimes it's really the only thing I still look forward to in life. It's my last truly reliable friend. I cannot function without it. So every morning I make it and I put it in my special takeaway mug and I let it cool just for half a minute on the counter in the hallway of the appartement while I yell at my kids to get dressed and get the dog out the door. And it might seem like I'm making a big deal out of all this, but let me tell you, it's worth it. I'm worth it. And that moment when I finally sit down in the driver's seat in my car, and reach down for that first sip, it's just absolutely the worst moment of my day EVERY day when my daughter says: "Dad? Did you forget your coffee on the counter again?" And then I buy coffee from McDonald's. And that's my routine.


#14 Do it Wrong

I'm doing this once in a while, giving tips about something I'm really not qualified to do, so it's important that you right there know that I very much don't know what the hell I'm doing over here. Almost noone does. So if these tips don't work for you, trust me when I say it's not you, it's me. I'm basically a lunatic. But...well...if you're still here, and for any reason you happen to have questions about how to write characters, my tip is...do it wrong. It's a very old trick, I first got it from a great writer and friend years ago, and it's basically this: Whatever character you're writing, write the opposite. Because when we're writing someone who is very different from ourselves we always tend to overdo it, try too hard, and we fall into stereotypes that makes them a cardboard cutout instead of a human being. So if you have a hard time writing a kid, write them like an 80-year-old. If you're struggling to write a man, try writing him like you would write a woman. If you're describing a girl, describe her using only words you would use describing a boy. The handy thing is, I've found, that this is the easiest way to expose your own prejudices to yourself. It's also, often enough, a little path to start finding depth and complexity in someone. If you're writing the villain, write them like if you believe they're the hero. If you're describing an object, describe it like it has feelings. If you're writing about a huge forest, write it like if it's a small closed room. It won't solve all of your problems, but whenever you're stuck, I find this can be a little nudge to get you out of the hole. You'll figure the rest out along the way.


#15 Words are overrated

Writers often get asked: "How many words do you write every day?" Like it's a measurement of hard work. I am of course totally 100% very sure that there are many other writers more qualified to answer this, so I'm sorry you ended up with me, but here goes my best shot: Do. Not. Count. Words. It means nothing. Or, I mean, of course WORDS mean something. If they're good words. But 10 000 bad ones is...nothing. Unless of course they have POTENTIAL to be good words, in which case they're GREAT words, they just need editing. But then here's the problem: On the day you're editing, making them great, you actually end up writing almost...no words. So you feel worthless, although this was your...best day. Because a great day can be getting one idea, solving two problems, just figuring some shit out. And you can do that in the shower or while drunk in a bar. I mean...I'm not telling you to go to a bar instead of writing, from a somewhat extensive personal experience I know that doesn't really help, so...what the hell am I saying? Well, I'm saying you shouldn't have asked me to begin with, I'm saying. But if you still ARE, I'm saying this: Writing is not the only part of being a writer. You have to edit. You have to think, a lot. You have to do research, talk to smart people (and a couple of idiots). You need to read. You need to fail. Get lost. So don't count a day's work in the number of words, count it in the number of hours your little imaginary universe consumed you. Did you loose track of time today? Do people keep snapping their fingers in front of you because you aren't paying attention? Are the friends in your head starting to feel more real than your real ones? Did someone just ask you "wait, are you crying"? And did you lie, because it seemed a little weird to tell them that, you know, this person you made up in your head made you sad? And now you're crying because of something that never took place, and then you're laughing because of a joke that noone...forget it. Just forget it. Did you go on an adventure today? Did you name a dragon today? Did someone think you were an absolute lunatic today? Well, then you had a really good day as a writer. Count that.


#16 Like things

Hi. If you want to be a writer chances are that sometimes your self-esteem will go down a dark hole. This has nothing to do with your success, that's not how anxiety work, the problem with having an active imagination is just that you get really good at imagining the worst about yourself. A really common defense mechanism to this, unfortunately, is trying to pick yourself up by putting others down. All great writers I know are fragile creatures, you can't tell someone who is making their living describing emotions to not be emotional, but the BEST writers I know all have one thing in common: They talk a lot about things they like, very little about what they don't like. They get excited and overwhelmed about the writing of others, they don't get jealous, they don't view the success of someone else as theft from themselves. They call you in the middle of the night or burst through the office door in the morning because they read or heard or saw something awesome, something that made them lose their balance a little bit. They express love, which is way harder than the opposite, because in the words of Anton Ego: "In many ways, being a critic is easy, we risk very little." If you want to be a writer, any kind of writer, you have to risk failure. You have to risk rejection and condescending people telling you you're not good enough, that you don't belong here. If you believe them, you'll become them. You'll be one of those smartasses at the party laying out in great detail everything that's wrong with that book or that Netflix show or that other writer. You'll be funny, because you're good with words, and the meaner you are the more superior you'll feel. The problem just is, often enough, that the voice you're using will stick. And now that's your inner voice, whenever you try writing something yourself. So you'll write scared, your imagination will crumble, your world will shrink. Don't get me wrong: If you want to be a critic, that's fine. I've just found that very few people can be critics and creators at the same time. So if you want to write things, it really helps to like things.


#17 Children's clothing

(I do this once in a while without being at all qualified, so in case these tips don't work for you my best tip really is to get a second opinion from a trained professional.) Once in a while I try to explain to a young writer (once in a while writers ask me about things and sometimes they're young) how I go about constructing a chapter where a lot of different things are going on at the same time. In "Anxious People", for example, a young writer pointed out that I was obviously trying to trick the reader into thinking that this was just a simple little comedy when in fact it was also a kind of complicated closed-room-mystery. I felt that maybe the young writer didn't have to call my little comedy "simple", I prefer "stupid", but other than that: Sure. I use comedy as diversion, and sometimes as relief, from whatever slightly heavier thing I'm really trying to say along the way. And in "Anxious People" the comedy and the drama in equal measures served as smokes and mirrors from the little trick I was trying to pull in the background. And so, the question from the young writer was: Do I plan all that out before starting a chapter? Do I write it all in one sitting? And the not very useful answer is: "Sure. Sometimes." The somewhat more useful one might be: "But more often: I write it like I dressed my children for a Scandinavian winter when they were little. Layer upon layer." In "Anxious People" I sometimes just wrote down all the jokes in a chapter first, or I wrote all the dialogue but nothing of the narrator voice, or I just straight up and down made a list of everything I needed the reader to know once the chapter was over (I think writers who actually know what they're doing call this an "information dump"). If I were doing three things (comedy, drama, mystery) I wrote one first, then re-wrote and filled in the other two. Layer upon Layer. Writing, especially comedy, is a lot of rhythm. I need to play it out and see where it takes me, then go back and try to play it another way. Until something clicks. It's just a trick, but I think it can trick you into thinking that you actually have a structure. And tricking yourself is as good a structure as any I know.

#18 Don't Publish

Aspiring writers often ask: “How do I get published?” Problem is, many ask it before they're done writing, some before they've even started. So here's my only advice: Maybe…don’t publish? I’m not trying to be annoying (I often am, but not trying to be), it’s just that if you’re writing just to be published, I don’t think I can help. Publishing, sales, success or failure, that's just consequences. Side effects. Don't write to publish, write to write. I strongly believe that imagination is a fragile magic, noone knows how it works, we're all trying to get lost in the woods on purpose. I’m sure there are genius writers and publishers who KNOW what will be commercially successful, but I think they are way fewer than any of us think. I’m not one of them, and chances are you’re not either. So don’t write to get published. It's too much pressure. Write for yourself. Play around. Get lost. Most of us are just chasing moments anyway, little sparks, a second of excitement. Whatever happens after that is a bonus, happy accidents, that’s not why we write. Most of us are just trying to explain life to ourselves, coping with being a person, getting through the day. We struggle with death, accepting that we're losing against time. We want our kids to know, somehow, we’re doing our best. We want the person we’re in love with to know that before you I didn’t know I could laugh like this, my body had a whole extra giggle in reserve just in case one day I would meet a marvelous lunatic. That’s why we write, to tell someone that you're not the air in my lungs or the blood in my veins, you're the joy in my heart. Publishing? Don’t start there. Start with writing like you would paint something for your own wall. Sing like it was for your newborn child in the middle of the night. Don’t make plans, just write. And no, it can’t wait until tomorrow, it must happen now. So that in a year, you can say: “In 2024 I wrote my novel.” Not “a novel”, but “my novel”. Do it, do it know. It won’t be easy, you will struggle, stumble and break. But all of a sudden, there will be a moment, a spark. A second where you will feel: “It will all be okey.” And that's it, all that any of us can hope for.

#19 Be Good

It's easy, when you're starting out trying to be a writer, to get caught up in the obsession of being "unique". The idea that you have to come up with something completely new and original, just to be worthy of a chance. This is, of course, in it's essence a good thing. It's what drives progress and innovation. And I'm sure there are some people out there whose very first creative idea turned out to be revolutionary. But...seriously? In most cases? That legendary song that one band wrote in 30 minutes probably came after 10 years of rehearsing and playing and trying and failing. That fantastic novel that was an "overnight success" probably came after a decade of work on things never published. That spark of genius, that brilliant second of creativity when it all comes together, it's usually earned. I have a good friend who's a fantastically gifted stand up comedian, @carlstanleyy. Upon hearing someone claim that the most important thing for a new comic is to be "original" and "unique" and "special", he answered: "How about trying to be really good? Do you know how special it is to be really, really good?" I think about it often, I hold it as some of the best advice to any young creative person: Start by being good. Aim for very, very good. That's special enough. Do the work, learn your trade, don't worry about being unique. Don't look for a premise or a world or a thought that will blow people away in an elevator pitch. Start with something you know, characters you believe in, a good solid story you enjoy telling. Don't put the pressure of being one of a kind on yourself, almost noone is, in most professions there are at most a handful of generational talents. Don't worry about it. Every single thing you love was heavily inspired by something else. You don't have to change the whole industry to deserve a place here. You don't have to be the best, you just have to be good. Work hard, learn from others, try and try again. Celebrate progress, however slow. You'll get there. If you learn a craft, all that is special in you will show eventually. For now: You don't have to be unique, you don't have to stand out, you just have to write. Learn. Be good.


#20 Don't find yourself

I spoke at a school recently, a 15-year-old asked for writing advice. So I said: Have an identity crisis. Have several, if possible. When you grow up society tricks you into thinking that you have to get your shit together, that you have to know who you are, choose an identity and stick to it. But you really don't. All the most interesting people I know were once completely different, they dressed differently and thought differently and liked different things than now. They changed. They kept looking. Most of them aren't done, they're still moving into their next age, next life. If you're young, I hope you get a weird haircut, listen to loud music, find art that will knock you over and books that will blow you away. I hope some shitty people who knew you a year ago will roll their eyes at the new you, because they haven't changed at all. They remained small, you grew. And I think that's how the stories of many different people by having many different ones within yourself. Those who roll their eyes at you? They will ever only have a single version of themselves. They live in narrow corridors, but if you want to create something you have to find a window, you have to dare to audition a couple of personalities. It'll be hard, it'll hurt like hell, and honestly? Some of us never quite find our way, we end up being people who don't really belong in any group, having that feeling wherever we are that if we take just half a step outside of this circle we'll lose our place forever. I'm still lost, still uncomfortable, but I've learned to view that as something useful. Because all those years of desperately trying to fit in and understand how different people work...that's how I write characters now. I try to figure them out the same way, one failure at a time. From that perspective, if you want to be a writer, you can collect rejections. You'll use the person you were, wished you'd become. You'll use the insecurities and the regrets. If you're easily hurt, it's not a bad thing, it just means you have thin skin. I've never met a creative person I've admired who had anything else.





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